5
Venetian Snares
237-0894
Venetian Snares (Aaron Funk) proves he is capable of true depth on this release, with sounds ranging from his standard spastic glitchery and free jazz influenced pieces, to hip hoppy collaborations with CEX, and chill out masterpieces exploiting Morrissey samples.
4
El-P
Fantastic Damage
Heavily IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) influenced production and bleak songwriting make El-p’s Fantastic Damage my vote for the hip hop release of the year. But, I’m a nerdy white guy, so my vote doesn’t count, right?
3
Mirah
Advisory Committee
Mirah’s last record, You Think It’s Like This, But Really It’s Like
This, had me from the start. The simple production and instrumentation combined fluidly with her sultry vocals to create something truly enjoyable. Advisory Committee, in contrast, was produced by Phil Elvrum of the Microphones and many of the songs are perfected by his dense instrumentation and recording techniques. Also featuring a touch more of Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn’s traditional Jewish influences, this is a record you will be hard pressed to put back down.
2
Super Furry Animals
Rings Around the World
I don’t like this record. However, for some reason, everyone and their
goddamn uncles do. If someone wants to e-mail me on what I missed, I
would welcome the feedback. I’ll let WVUM’s John Spain explain his reasoning: “Shut up James. This album is layered with pop songs the likes of which Of Montreal (the band) wish they could write. Combine that with excellent production and the two disc, DVD set the album comes with, and you easily have an amazing album.” OK John,
we aren’t judging CDs on whether they have a DVD. This would mean Pavement’s Slow Century would be counted as a CD, making it better than the Super Furries.
1
Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Ok, I tried real hard to hate this album. I mean, even Rolling Stone was all up on Wilco’s jock, and I tried to come up with every excuse possible to keep this off my #1 for the year, but then I remembered the 400,000 times I listened to this record, and every single time, I heard something new come out of the stereo. This is simply the best record of the year.
For further explanations/feedback James Hush can be reached at music@wvum.org.